Kazuo Kumakura
Also Known As: 熊倉 一雄
Biography: Kazuo Kumakura (熊倉 一雄) was a Japanese actor, voice actor, and theatre director. He was the head of the Theatre Echo agency at the time of his death.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Birthday: January 30, 1927
Deathday: October 12, 2015
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Panda! Go Panda!
Overview: Cheerful Mimiko has a wonderfully strange family—a Panda for her Papa; and his son Panny, calls her Mom! When Panny follows Mimiko to school, he must pretend to be a teddy bear so Mimiko won't get into trouble. Despite his efforts to behave, Panny causes trouble in school and now the school is after Panny! Then, Panny makes a new friend, Tiny, a baby tiger who's wandered off from the circus.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-12-17
Popularity:
Panda! Go Panda!
Overview: The plot follows Mimiko, a bright little girl left alone when her grandmother leaves on a trip. Making a few stops at some local stores, Mimiko comes home to her house in a bamboo grove and finds a baby panda named Panny sleeping on the back doorstep. She quickly makes friends with the little panda, and invites him in for a drink. His father, PapaPanda, soon comes to visit, and they decide to become a family after PapaPanda offers to.
Genres: Animation Family Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-12-17
Popularity:
New Treasure Island
Overview: This was the first episode of Mushi Pro Land, a unique series of 60-minute animated programs. It was also Japan's first 60-minute animated TV program. However, the series never materialized and only this episode was actually aired. The story follows Stevenson's "Treasure Island," featuring characters in the form of animals. For example, the pirate Silver is illustrated as a wolf, where the main character Jim is changed into a rabbit. This has, therefore, nothing to do with the "New Treasure Island," Tezuka's masterpiece Manga.
Genres: Animation Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-01-03
Popularity:
Taro the Dragon Boy
Overview: Patterned after Japanese art and silk screens, Taro, The Dragon Boy is an animated feature about Japanese mythology and cultures, focusing on Taro, a young boy who has to make a voyage to a distant lake to save his mother, who has been turned into a dragon.
Genres: Fantasy Animation Family Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1979-03-17
Popularity:
The Great Adventures of Kikansha Yaemon D51
Overview: An old train engine endeavors to be useful despite the more modern transportation now available in the big city. The story was taken from a highly popular storybook series. Traditionally animated movie Toei based on a bestseller picture book by Agawa Hiroyuki, illustrated by Okabe Fuyuhiko and published in 1959 by Iwanami Shoten Publishing.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1974-03-16
Popularity:
The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots
Overview: His goal is to help the weak and defenseless, but his saving a mouse makes him the most wanted in all the land. On the run from incessant, dim-witted mice, Perro befriends a young miller's boy, Pierre; together, they decide to seek fame and fortune. When they cross paths with the lovely Princess Rosa, Perro determines to get Pierre hitched to Her Royal Highness.
Genres: Family Action Adventure Comedy Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-03-18
Popularity:
A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era
Overview: Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-07-14
Popularity:
Young Jack and the Witch
Overview: Jack is a boy who lives with his animal friends Barnaby Bear, Dinah Dog, Squeeker Mouse and Phineas Fox. He's challenged to a race with Allegra, who turns out to be a witch. She takes Jack to the queen witch, Auriana. She plans on turning all her slaves into evil harpies.
Genres: Animation Horror Fantasy Family
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1967-03-19
Popularity:
Panda! Go Panda!: Rainy Day Circus
Overview: The family consisting of two pandas and one girl lives happily when suddenly a little tiger appears at their home. It arrives that the circus had come to their town. All of a sudden starts the pouring rain but it can't stop them.
Genres: Animation Comedy Family
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-03-17
Popularity:
Little Polar Bear
Overview: Based on the beloved book, the polar bear cub Lars floats away on a patch of ice and ends up in Africa, where, with the help of his new friends, he finds a way back home to his papa at the North Pole.
Genres: Animation Family
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1990-04-28
Popularity:
The Wizard of Oz
Overview: An animated version of the classic story of a young farm-girl who is transported to the magical land of Oz.
Genres: Animation Fantasy Family Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-10-06
Popularity:
The Japanese Belly Button
Overview: Helen and her associates stage a confession play in order to remedy stuttering, but things go amiss.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1977-03-15
Popularity:
Phoenix 2772
Overview: Phoenix 2772 starts with twelve minutes without dialogue, much like a silent film, recalling the birth and education of Godo. In this brave new world, children are born in test tubes and are raised by computers and robots. Godo learns the skills that will make him into a great pilot, assisted by the robotic wonder Olga. Everything that Godo needs is provided for him until he eventually goes for training with his automaton companion. He soon realizes that the world is not what he expected...
Genres: Animation Science Fiction Mystery Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1980-03-15
Popularity:
Frankenstein Conquers the World
Overview: During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.
Genres: Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-08-08
Popularity:
Love Fantasia
Overview: A musical comedy.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1970-07-18
Popularity:
White Fang Story
Overview: White Fang is born on the planes of Alaska to a wolf father and a half-wolf, half-dog mother. One day he and his mother run into an Alaskan inuit boy Mit-sah, who has long dreamed of a dog of his own, and by a marvellous twist of fate, the wolves are taken in by him and his father. But life in Alaska is harsh for humans and wolves alike, and as winter comes, hardships lie in waiting for White Fang and Mit-sah. Facing the extreme coldness of their habitat and that of humans' greedy hearts, the two journey towards what they hope to be a happier environment.
Genres: Drama Adventure Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-05-05
Popularity:
Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops
Overview: The story begins with Nobita and Shizuka sitting on the pipes in the yard they hang out at while Suneo showed off his robot. Nobita grew jealous and asked Doraemon to build him a giant robot. Coincidently, robot parts began to fall from the sky. Then Nobita and Doraemon began to assemble the robot.
Genres: Animation Adventure Family Fantasy Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1986-03-15
Popularity:
The Legend of Manxmouse
Overview: A ceramic figure of a blue mouse with long ears, stubby legs, and no tail suddenly comes to life. He is a “Manxmouse” as known in the legend. Since he is new to this world, his fearless curiosity leads him to meet a frog couple, an aviator hawk, a stray tiger, and a girl. Although he learns about his ultimate fate-to be eaten by a “Manxcat”-he decides to face this cat and challenge his destiny.
Genres: Animation Adventure Family TV Movie
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1979-06-30
Popularity:
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Overview: Sangokushi is set in the waning days of the Han dynasty. Central rule has disintegrated, and the land is controlled by multiple warlords. Liu Bei Xuande is a warrior who aspires to build a just state and to serve the people.
Genres: Action History War Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-03-20
Popularity:
Eleven Cats and an Albatross
Overview: Eleven naughty cats on the run from the neighborhood police chief hear that a giant fish is nearby for the taking. They go on a hazardous quest find it, learning that they must work as a team to reach their goal.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-12-15
Popularity:
Bonobono
Overview: The first theatrical release, titled Bonobono, opened in theaters on 1993-11-13. The film has since been broadcast on domestic television in Japan, including on broadcast satellite channels such as NHK BS-2. The film has been released on VHS and DVD in Japan, including in a "no cut" edition.
Genres: Animation Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1993-11-13
Popularity:
Reign: The Conqueror Movie
Overview: Prince Alexander, son of King Philip, and heir to the Macedonian empire, must fend off political saboteurs, assassins, and the jealousy of his own father to ascend to the position of king. Once there, he begins his quest to conquer all nations and become known as the Great King, though an ancient prophecy foretells that he will be the destroyer of the world and forever remembered as the Devil King.
Genres: Animation History Adventure Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2000-10-27
Popularity:
I Want to Be a Shellfish
Overview: Television production of I Want to Be a Shellfish. On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation by GHQ, Toyomatsu "attemped to kill a US prisoner", which was nothing but an order by his superior and failed after all with hurting the prisoner by weak Toyomatsu. Also, Toyomatsu was driven to corner at the trial by the fact that he fed the US prisoner some burdock roots to nourish him. Toyomatsu believes nothing but being not guilty, but he is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to the execution, Toyomatsu writes a long farewell letter to his family, the wife and the only son: "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-10-31
Popularity:
Kaisen
Overview: Short film by Ryohei Yanagihara.
Genres: Animation
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-11-26
Popularity: